Torchwood: Another Life by Peter Anghelides

Torchwood: Another Life
by Peter Anghelides
Read by John Barrowman
Published by AudioGo / BBC Audiobooks
Running Time: 3hrs 0mins

So did you catch any seasons of Torchwood? If so then you know how cool of a TV series it is. The show is a spinoff from Doctor Who (in fact the title, Torchwood, is an anagram of Doctor Who) and features an “X-files” type team in Cardiff, Wales who fight every day to keep aliens from invading Earth. The series is based on the idea that a rift in time and space runs directly through Cardiff and all sorts of nasty stuff is trying to get through.

The first season of the series (which is where this audiobook takes place) features Captain Jack Harkness (portrayed by John Barrowman), a time traveller and con man from the 51st century who once was a companion in the TARDIS with the Doctor. Captain Jack has a team that specializes in wrangling the aliens and using various alien technology to cover up their existence. The team conists of Gwen Cooper, a Welsh police officer recruited to the team after seeing “too much,” Owen Harper, a medical doctor that is quickly learning the anatomy of many alien races, Toshiko Sato, a computer specialist, and Ianto Jones the coffee guy/front desk man and more (in this part of the series that’s all you really need to know, later in the series it was revealed why and how he became a part of the team.

The series gained a larger and larger audience as each season aired mainly because of the well written stories, but also because of their open approach to Gay and Lesbian characters. I found the series a nice sci-fi series that combined elements of Doctor Who and the X-files. All the episodes had some great acting and great scripts and kept me interested until this last season which aired in the U.S. on the Starz network. This last season moved what was left of the team (Gwen and Captain Jack) to the United States and for some reason the writing seemed to miss something.

Anyway back to this book. Like I said, it takes place in the first season, so you get the full team, as the seasons progressed team members were lost with no replacement. This book starts just about a month or so after Gwen is recruited and jumps into the action right away. A massive storm is dumping rain on Cardiff with twenty-four inches of rain fall in twenty-four hours, the city center’s drainage system collapses, causing sever flooding and to make matter’s worse the homeless are being murdered, their mutilated bodies left lying in the soaked streets around the Blaidd Drwg nuclear facility. Tracked down by Torchwood, the killer calmly drops eight stories to his death. But the killings don’t stop. Torchwood soon discovers a sea-monster in a bathtub, stolen nuclear fuel from an army base and Torchwood’s doctor, Owen, goes missing.

As it happens something is forcing its way through the rift in the bay causing the storm system and it is up to Torchwood to track down the alien before the “something” coming through the rift destroys Cardiff and possibly the world.

The audiobook is read by the show’s lead actor John Barrowman and he delivers the story in the perfect Captain Jack Harkness way. Harkness is a bit cocky and always sure of himself and Barrowman portrays that perfectly in the series and in this audiobook, without being a multi-cast audiobook, Barrowman was the perfect choice and succeeded in presenting the fun and action within the Torchwood world.

Not sure about the future of the series, but if this audiobook is a reflection of the others available, I can still get my fix.

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